Matamoros, Mexico (NewsBahn) – A top leader of the Gulf drug cartel with a multi-million price tag on his head was killed Friday afternoon in a two-hour shootout with Mexican security forces.
Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, also known as “Tony Tormenta,” along with three other gunmen, was killed in a raid by Mexican naval forces. Three naval officers and a Mexican journalist were killed and four others injured in the raid, which was met with grenades and assault weapons fire from within Cardenas’ hideout.
U.S. and Mexican authorities charge that Cardenas smuggled tons of marijuana and cocaine into the United States. The U.S. had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest, and Mexican officials had offered a separate $2 million reward.
“Today was another significant step in the destruction of criminal organizations that have done so much to damage the people of this country,” a spokesman for the Mexican government said in a statement.
The gunfire was so intense that the University of Texas at Brownsville, about half a mile across the border, cancelled classes through Saturday.
Cardenas’ brother Osiel had led the cartel until 2003, when he was arrested by Mexican authorities. He was extradited in 2007 to the U.S. where he was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $50 million.
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